The two, according to Ms Nyakoke’s brother Japhet Mogeni, met on Facebook some time back and decided to meet face-to-face on July 23 in Nairobi.

Mr Nyakina had contacted Ms Nyaboke on her mobile phone number, believed to have been extracted from her Facebook profile, and told her that he knew her and that he came from the same village with her.

“They kept communicating for some time before they decided to meet,” Mr Mogeni said, adding that after their meeting on July 23, Ms Nyaboke’s phone went off.

Ms Nyaboke’s family searched for her in vain before making a missing-person report at Pangani and later on Ngong police stations.

She had been working as an attendant at an M-Pesa shop since she completed her studies, he brother said.

Detectives traced her phone to Kisii town.

The man who had the phone said he had bought it from Mr Nyakina and luckily enough, he had his number and knew someone who knew him.

“We arrested him in Gucha, Kisii, and he confessed to have killed the lady,” Head of Special Crimes Prevention Unit Noah Katumo said.

“He took the police officers to a thicket in Dagoretti near Mutuini Secondary School.”

According to police, Mr Nyakina said he hit Ms Nyaboke on the head, suffocated her and used her clothes to strangle her. When the suspect showed the police officers where he murdered and left Ms Nyaboke’s body in Dagoretti, the local police station was contacted.

The officers confirmed to have found her body on July 27 and took it to the City Mortuary in Nairobi. On Friday last week, Ms Nyaboke’s family identified her body. A post-mortem done on it on Monday showed that she was strangled.

Her parents, Zachary and Irene Mogeni, travelled from Kisii to oversee the post-mortem and burial preparations. They intend to bury her on Friday this week. Meanwhile, the suspect was taken to the Milimani Law Courts but he did not plead after police sought more time to wrap up their investigations.

The officers also requested the court to allow them detain the suspect for seven more days. The request was granted. The suspect also has a pending r*pe case.